More Than Books: Teen programs offered at Freeport Public Library

Friday

Nov 8, 2013 at 8:00 AM

By Carole Dickerson

Teen Programs at the Library

Now that Youth Services Supervisor Anna Doyle is on the job, she has resumed teen programming at the Freeport Public Library. Teens are a notoriously difficult audience, so I figured Doyle could use a hand promoting some up the upcoming events. If you feed and care for a teen or know of someone who does, please pass along the following information.

November is Novel Writing Month, and Doyle is challenging teens ages five to 18 to write a story.

A two-hour training camp will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. on Nov. 16, where participants can compete in drabble challenges.

For the uninitiated, such as myself, I'll have you know that a drabble is an extremely short work of fiction, exactly 100 words in length, excluding the title.

"If you don't feel like writing a short story, create a comic book," she suggests. "Show off your imagination further by switching with someone else, with one person writing the story and the other doing the illustrations," Doyle suggests.

In addition to the drabble challenge, she is organizing poetry races and a dare machine, neither of which I can quite picture. What I am sure of is that those mean children's librarians in Flint, Mich., where I grew up, would hate it all — almost as much as they hated any child who dared visit the library. Thank goodness we are building happier memories of the library for kids today than I have of the library of my childhood where silence ruled and I had to sneak into the adult section of the library.

"The Hunger Games"

The 75th anniversary of "The Hunger Games" is coming. Stop by the library between 4:30 and 6 p.m., November 22, for some conversation and activities related to "The Hunger Games" series just in time for the release of the new movie, "Catching Fire." This is a nice opportunity to not only talk about the series, but also to meet Doyle.

The library has multiple copies of all "The Hunger Games" books for check-out.

On Thursday, our own showing of the first movie, "The Hunger Games," will start at 5:30 p.m. Teens are invited to come and watch it projected on the big screen in the library meeting room. Snacks will be provided.

Veterans Day closure

Information from last week's column that bears repeating: The library will be closed Monday for Veterans Day. I promise we've adjusted the library fines schedule because of the closure, but remember our drop box is always open.

Furthermore, thanks to our online catalog, PrairieCat, there are all kinds of things you can do from home. You can renew materials, search for titles you want to borrow, and download eBooks and eAudio books.